The Test

Thirty-one

I wake as we're about to enter the compound. There are dozens of people crowding the doorway of the large loading bay at the back where the Jeeps are kept for raids. Bianca is being embraced by Zach and Alina, Frex and Vi are kissing, and Luc...
Luc.
His eyes are full of such tender love as he sweeps me up into his arms and cradles me to his chest. He pushes past all the onlookers and through to the main barn. The courtyard, the bench where we had our first real conversation. Where he told me about the prophecy of Two Twin Souls...
He shoulders open the door to the training barn, which as far as I can see is blissfully empty. My eyes flicker further open, seeing Luc's eyes filled with love and anguish. "Anya," he whispers, ascending the stairs to his room and lowering me gently into his bed so he can brush a hand across my cheek. "My love. My Anya."
He brushes my hair gently from my forehead, and hovers above me concernedly.
"You're here," I whisper, still unable to fully comprehend it. I try to open my eyes even wider to take in more of him, lift my arm to touch him. But my limbs still feel heavy with sleep, and Luc smiles as if he can read my thoughts. "Sleep, my love," he whispers, echoing his earlier words. "I'll be right beside you." He tucks the blanket around me, then climbs into the bed, lying down close beside me, his chest to my back. I feel so safe, so protected, such relief at being free from this torment, that the bruises I know I must have don't even pain me. My eyes close to the sight of Luc watching over me, a small but happy smile on his face.
~
Viola
Frex hugs her the second she's out of the Jeep, the first real contact they've had despite his hand on her back as he led her to the Jeep; a massive bear hug that crushes the air from her lungs. His smile is so wide that when he kisses her, he almost misses her mouth. But while she had dozed a little in the Jeep, now she feels more alive than ever. His arms hold her tight and his mouth moves against hers, both feeling eager and reckless as tongues and lips meet and meld, becoming one before breaking apart for air that no longer seems necessary, Vi thinks, now that Frex is here.
They have all the time in the world, Vi thinks, dazed and euphorically happy. She wishes she has some family to tell about the news that she is alive and mostly well, but Frex is all she has. And he already knows that she's here. Obviously.
She laughs. "Hello," she says, still laughing.
"Hello," he says back, eyes sparkling with humour and worry and desire. "We should get you to the infirmary," he comments, but makes no move to leave the corner of the loading bay they've secluded themselves in. "Should being the operative word," she laughs, then claims his mouth once more.
~
Aria
Nightmare.
No. Not again.
That room. The dark, dingy, smelly one where Luc was bound and whipped and I had to watch him suffer. My own scream tears me from the bed, rearing up in abject terror before his own arms tether me down. "Shh, love, it's alright, I'm right here-"
"Luc? Luc?" My frantic hands reach for him, throat dry and parched from disuse.
"I'm right here, love." he soothes me, leaning over me and stroking my hair. "I promise."
I start to relax. "What time is it?"
"Almost six. You've been asleep most of the day."
"I have?!" I gasp. "No."
He nods. Strokes my hair some more. "Another nightmare?" he asks, worried.
I nod, tell him about my time in the dungeon-like warehouse cell. He shudders. "Was Vi there too?"
"Yeah. They chained her to the floor. I don't know why, but there was a sort of hierarchy..." I explain, taking shuddering breaths. "It was a breeding centre."
His eyes are troubled. "I know." His gazes moves over me, checking for injury. I'm still in my clothes from the cell; they reek. "Are you hurt?"
"Only bruises," I say, as if they aren't agony incarnate. In a way, I was lucky. But it was the psychological trauma that really took its toll. It will take me weeks to heal from this, just as it did from my previous set of nightmares.
His brow furrows. "Oh, love. Rest."
"I've slept enough,"I say truthfully. I don't even feel woozy, despite the fact that I haven't eaten in about two days. Maybe more. I've been too out of it since they started torturing me to notice.
Luc gives me a look. "If you're sure."
"I'm sure."
He nods. "Ok. Supper, then. But first, there's something I've been meaning to do..."
I'm still laughing as he kisses me. It starts tender and sweet, but then turns deep and all consuming, and we only break away after several minutes. "I love you," he whispers, eyes closing involuntarily as he rests his forehead against mine. "And I you," I whisper back, echoing the words he spoke in the torture chamber. I try not to shudder at the memory of what came after those words.
He smiles. "I've missed you," he says softly, taking my hair in his fingers and lifting it up to kiss it.
"I've missed you too," I say. "You have no idea."
He grins, worry still lining his face and shadows in his eyes.
"Hey," I say, to distract him. "I'm hungry."
His grin widens, a memory of the old days. "Distracted by all the food smells?" I nod, and he winks. "Then let's go."
~
Supper is beautiful. Bread and stew, scooped up by bruised hands and stuffed into starved mouths. Animated conversation, winking lights scattered around, adding to the ambiance. Vi, Bianca and I relate our time in the warehouse to those on our table, Alina looking horrified and Zach with wide-eyed interest. I wonder how I could ever have loved him, when I look at him now, animated and interested, morbidly so, at the recounted tales of torture. But then I wonder if I ever did.
Frex just looks disgusted at what they did to Vi, which I now find out is a gruesome level of torture-whoever held us had no qualms about hurting her. She was abducted, not given to them.
Callum is silent, evidently deep in thought. "How are we going to get the others out?" he says suddenly. Bianca looks at him. "Who?"
He looks startled that she's talking to him. "The people who are still in there. The other girls."
She nods, thinking. "Well, I'm sure as hell never going back to that place."
He nods. "I wasn't suggesting you should. I just-I want to help them."
"Why?" Alina says sharply. "You've never cared about anyone before."
He shoots her a glare as if to say, shut up. He nods tersely. "Well, I care now." He recoils suddenly, as if he's been slapped. "I-I have to go." his voice sounds strangled. He runs from the room.
~
Bianca
Zach says, "I'll go talk to him."
"No," I say. "I will." Lucas protests, but Aria looks worried, so he quiets and turns to reassure her. I slip away, crossing the busy hall to the adjoining courtyard.
I find him on one of the benches. I hover above him, not wanting to intrude on whatever memories are assaulting him. He seems to be crying-his shoulders are shaking with sobs.
I finally decide to sit down beside him, keeping my distance at the other side of the bench.
"I want to help them," he says to the air, voice determined and resolute. "Like I didn't help her."
"Who?" The question slips from my mouth unbidden. "Sorry."
"Her name was Gwen." he says, ignoring my apology. His eyes are still shrouded in memory. "She was a neighbour, a friend. I trusted her. I TRUSTED YOU!" he shouts into the night without warning, voice rasping and hoarse. His voice echoes back to us, scaring birds from the neighbouring trees. I try not to flinch. "She betrayed us," he says softly, a whisper.
"I betrayed her." His voice is so quiet, it's barely a breath.
"How?" I ask softly.
He turns towards me. "Alina and I failed our Tests, within hours of each other. Gwen and her family took us in, allowed us fugitives to live with them. Then one night, we were out together, and a guy beat her up and threatened to tell the government she was hiding Genetics. She told me to run, and I did. Two nights later, she was dead."
"But how did she betray you?" I ask, confused, avoiding the other part of his sentence.
"She went to the police. The Secret Police. That night, she turned us in. That's why she told us to run. It was a set up. The guy who beat her up was her friend- he'd been paid by her family to threaten us so we'd run and not come back. Then the government issued a reward for our heads on spikes, and they went to the police to tell them they'd seen us. Gwen got three grand just for telling them she'd seen us. That kept her family going for a while." he says bitterly.
"Then...how did she die?" I ask, cautious.
"I killed her."
Shock runs through my body. "What?"
"I went back and killed her two nights later, after we'd established a safe spot to hide. I've never told Alina, but she deserved to pay for what she did."
"But you were already fugitives. It wouldn't have changed anything."
He sighs. "I know that now. I was hotheaded, rash. It was the worst betrayal I'd ever experienced." he looks at his feet. "I loved her. I trusted her. She threw it back in our faces, even after caring for us. But the regulations got stricter, and her parents wanted us gone."
I nod. "But that was only a year ago."
"I know," he says, ashamed. "I've changed now, I swear. I want to atone for my past crimes, make up for what I did. I want to help those girls like Gwen didn't help me. I want to give now, not take. I've had so much taken from me, but now I have a home, and I want to give something back to them."
"Very noble of you," a voice says behind us. I turn to see Knox striding towards us. "Maybe we can do something about that."
Callum starts. "We can? We can get them out?"
Knox nods. "If we're careful."
"I'm not going back there," I say quickly. I don't want to get roped into some kind of mad rescue when I've only just been rescued myself and my bruises are still healing.
"Of course, Bianca." Knox is solemn. "You'll never have to go back there again." My muscles relax, and I realise I had been holding them tense, as if bracing for an attack.
"Thank you," I whisper. He nods. "I'll see you soon, Bianca. Callum, come with me."
~
Aria
After Callum runs off and Bianca goes to find him, Luc and I say goodbye to Vi and Frex and cross the courtyard to the loft. Callum and Bianca are deep in conversation.
"Do you remember the prophecy of the Two Twin Souls?" Luc asks as he removes his boots when we get there, sitting on the edge of the bed.
I nod, joining him and doing the same. My toes are sore. "You told me about it when we first became friends, remember?"
He laughs. "Yeah." his eyes dance, alight with love and amusement. "Well, it's not really a prophecy, more of a myth. Legend says that there was a being born with four legs and two heads, but one torso. A mutation."
A connection starts to form.
"But this mutation was reviled and feared because of the gifts it possessed, such as heightened senses and speed, so it was shunned by society and eventually hunted down and killed." his eyes shine. "Sound familiar?" he jokes sarcastically.
I laugh. "Yes."
"Well it's rumoured that the being survived, now in two bodies, but still sharing a heart, and that it spent the rest of its life searching for its other half. Rumour has it that the being's descendants are still alive today."
"You think so?" I grin.
His answering grin lights up the room as he crosses the room towards me. His arms encircle my waist, toying with the ends of my hair as he kisses the top of my head, warm and tender and soft.
"I know so."
~